Specialty Crops for Pacific Island Agroforestry

From Bamboo to Black Pepper, Cacao to Coconut and Tea to Taro—Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands provides detailed cultivation, value-added, and marketing information for 26 of the most important specialty crops for Pacific Islands and other tropical locations.

Specialty crops provide a rapidly growing economic opportunity for innovative farmers and gardeners who are interested in diversifying their products. The book provides insights into sustainable cultivation and processing techniques for local and export markets with an emphasis on innovating production methods, postharvest processing, and marketing.

Beautifully illustrated with over 940 color images, each chapter cover a crop in detail. Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands highlights producers from throughout the Pacific and shares their experience—both their challenges and successes.

From the publishers of Traditional Trees for Pacific Islands and Agroforestry Guides for Pacific Islands, this 576-page book promotes high-quality food, fiber, and healthcare crops grown in diverse agroforestry systems. The emphasis is on providing small farms with opportunities for local consumption and commercial sale.

Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands is a must-have reference book for farmers, gardeners, teachers, and extension agents in the Pacific and throughout the tropics who are interested in new economic opportunities from specialty crops. This is not a book that sits on the shelf, but is thumbed through again and again.

REVIEWS

"Though the book is addressed primarily to the innovative farmers, gardeners, and extension personnel, it will prove also useful to the scientific and technical personnel interested in tropical crops, especially because of the numerous colour images given in the book, which will be informative for those unfamiliar with them."—N. M. Nayar, Agroforestry Systems review

"Editor Craig Elevitch has expertly crafted twenty seven chapters using the expertise of many prominent horticultural writers in a collective work that could become the new "food crop bible" for many small and large farmers and food producers in Polynesia and other tropical regions around the world."—Noel Ramos, Rare Fruit Council International review

“This formidable array of information is a gold mine of great ideas and insights on how our agricultural and food systems can be more environmentally, economically, culturally, and nutritionally sustainable and adaptable to a changing island world.”—R. R. Thaman, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

“This book provides an enormous boost to the growing worldwide recognition of the crucial role these traditional crops can play in alleviation of ongoing malnutrition, poor health, poverty, environmental degradation, and social deprivation.”—Roger R. B. Leakey, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia

“This compendium of expertly prepared profiles of the specialty plants grown in complex agroforestry systems, lavishly illustrated by captivating photographs, is a valuable addition to the literature on agroforestry and sustainable land use.”—P. K. Nair, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

“We are at a crossroad between food, money, truth, and cultures. Why not look accurately at the issues and work toward enlightened understanding that signals a shift from status-quo thinking? Hahai no ka ua i ka ulula’au – Plant a forest and the rains will follow.”—Manu Aluli Meyer, Hawai‘i Island/Aotearoa

“To all those who say that agriculture must intensify globally, Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands responds, Yes, let’s intensify, but through diversity and not at the expense of it. It’s a message that should resonate around the world.”—Luigi Guarino, Global Crop Diversity Trust, Rome, Italy

“This book comes at an opportune time for Pacific Island countries exploring means of self-sufficiency through potentially high-value crops that meet both local needs and earn export income. For the enterprising cultivator, the book is comprehensive in its coverage and is beautifully illustrated.”—Suliana Siwatibau, community development consultant, Suva, Fiji

“Traditional agricultural systems have been the basis for Pacific Island food security for thousands of years, but the shift from subsistence to a cash economy has marginalized many of these systems. Integrating speciality crops with economic benefits into agroforestry systems can contribute greatly to island food security and economic development.”—Bill Raynor, The Nature Conservancy, Pohnpei, FSM

Ted Radovich, Extension Specialist in Ecology, Yield, and Quality of Food Crops, Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii